National Collegiate Hockey Conference

[Trotsky]

An interesting thought though. We would clearly have to give up Ivy League Hockey with its schedule/practice restrictions and I don't see how we could play all the HE teams and the IVYs twice in a season. On the other hand we would have stronger competitors in BU, BC, UNH. If you value a national championship above all else (even beating Sucks) this would be a logical move.

Since we aren't going anywhere, I propose we petition to join the NCHC.  One or two trips to Minnesota and our fans will hate them just as much as Harvard.

[David Harding]

An interesting thought though. We would clearly have to give up Ivy League Hockey with its schedule/practice restrictions and I don't see how we could play all the HE teams and the IVYs twice in a season. On the other hand we would have stronger competitors in BU, BC, UNH. If you value a national championship above all else (even beating Sucks) this would be a logical move.

After a decade or two we could arrange to play Sucks at MSG over Thanksgiving weekend in alternate years and draw a big crowd.

[Trotsky]

An interesting thought though. We would clearly have to give up Ivy League Hockey with its schedule/practice restrictions and I don't see how we could play all the HE teams and the IVYs twice in a season. On the other hand we would have stronger competitors in BU, BC, UNH. If you value a national championship above all else (even beating Sucks) this would be a logical move.

After a decade or two we could arrange to play Sucks at MSG over Thanksgiving weekend in alternate years and draw a big crowd.

Play it in Estero.  More Harvard alumni nearby.

[ursusminor]

Maybe it is only the SUNY-Ithaca part of Cornell that will be going to HEA. The rest will remain in the ECAC. ;-)

[ugarte]

This is pretty much pissing me off.  Can someone explain to me how a school with such a poor historical hockey record can manage to hold the sport hostage? Or why the powers-that-be in college hockey are allowing themselves to be held hostage by such a weak program?  Am I the only person to see this as a tail-wagging-the-dog situation? A tiny, insignificant tail.

Notre Dame has a total of 15 winning seasons in the modern era. 15 out of 42 seasons at the D-1 level. Four of them came in the last 5 years. As recently as 2005, they posted a stellar 5-27-6 season, and they have 5 total NCAA tournament appearances to their name. A program with so much support, they were dropped to a club sport in the 1980s.

Why do they get to call the shots here?    Because of a football team that hasn't been relevant since Lou Holtz stepped down?

I get the BTHC move. I'm not happy about it, but I get it.  That forced the remaining Western schools to make the moves that subsequently happened.  And now just when the dust has cleared and we have a solution that works, with two leagues that would be fine with their membership, Notre Dame...again...NOTRE DAME decides that they might want to blast a hole into the Eastern landscape as well?  I'm sorry, who are you again?  Where did this "Notre Dame is deciding its next conference" crap come from?  Why aren't we asking UAH what conference THEY would like to join first?

I'm sure schools like Merrimack, Lowell, Northeastern are going to love the additional budget they have to cover for travel out to freaking Chicagoland.  SAY NO, HOCKEY EAST. JUST SAY NO TO THEM. They belong with the new WCHA, but if the NCHC will take them, just ducky.  Or stay independent like your coach-blaming shell of a football program. Stay out of the East.

Ah, the more I think about it, the angrier I get...Go to hell, Notre Dame.

This is silly. Do you know why four of the winning seasons came in the last five years? I don't either but I'm going to take a wild-ass guess: the school decided to commit the resources to compete in hockey. If Notre Dame wants to spend Notre Dame money to compete at the highest level, they can. The money the football team gets selling leprechaun keychains is enough to make Notre Dame hockey competitive.  To say that Notre Dame hasn't been "relevant" in football for years is to fail to see the forest for the trees. Notre Dame hasn't been a winning football team in years but they have never stopped being relevant. They are on TV almost every week. Any bowl would love to have them because even when they suck they are one of the biggest draws in the country. Notre Dame is a name that people with money and power like to hear attached to a sport and a conference. The way the world works, as I am sure you know, is that people with money and power are more important than people who appreciate the history of a hockey and even enjoy the game of hockey, even to the people who are responsible for hockey.

Notre Dame gets to wag the dog because they are a college sports titan who happens to play hockey and hockey is a sport that the titans usually ignore.

[Jim Hyla]

CHN on ND moving to HE. Looks like NCHC didn't want to accept them with their own TV deal. Good for them. Bad on HE's part.

[Jim Hyla]

And now, Adam's take on ND and HE.

[RichH]

This is silly.

Wait. The rambling, emotional rantings of a solitary, opinionated fan on an internet message board is silly? Alert CHN.

Do you know why four of the winning seasons came in the last five years? I don't either but I'm going to take a wild-ass guess: the school decided to commit the resources to compete in hockey.

And I'll take another wild-ass guess. Jeff Jackson.  You know, the guy who took all the resources of the massive athletics budget of Lake Superior State University, and mined all that cash for not one, but THREE National Championships, and had them consistently in the top-10 for a decade.  They made the tournament 9 straight years. And once he left, LSSU has not returned to the NCAA tournament.  Personally, I think the coaching and recruitment contacts that coaching staff brings with it has more to do with the sudden rise of a dead-in-the-water program than any other factor.  In this level of this sport, you can't spend your way from a 5-win season to National Runner-Up in 3 years.  It's coaching.

Take Ohio State. Horrible, laughable hockey program for decades. They moved to an 18,000 seat state-of-the-art arena about the same time. They made the Frozen Four and had a run of several tournament appearances.  "Finally, OSU is supporting their hockey program financially," was the talk.  "They'll finally bring the blood-feud to the ice and challenge Michigan's dominance!"  How about now?  5 of 6 losing seasons for Ohio State.  Oh well, that building was really for basketball anyway.  

Notre Dame would tank again if Jackson were to walk.

Notre Dame hasn't been a winning football team in years but they have never stopped being relevant.

I hold my position that they haven't been relevant on the field in well over a decade. They haven't been relevant in the polls, they haven't been relevant in any computer rankings, and nobody thinks that the road to a National Championship runs through South Bend.

The way the world works, as I am sure you know, is that people with money and power are more important than people who appreciate the history of a hockey and even enjoy the game of hockey, even to the people who are responsible for hockey.

You're absolutely right, but that doesn't take away my right to be angry about that very fact and rant about it in silly internet posts. OCCUPY USCHO!!

Notre Dame gets to wag the dog because they are a college sports titan.

In what? Women's Soccer, Men's Fencing,and Undeserved Marketing.

The NBC hockey deal is nothing more than Notre Dame waving a freebie in NBC's face (attractive since NBC has the NHL contract), to quiet the grumblings that NBC got an exclusive football contract with a terrible product.

[RichH]

CHN on ND moving to HE. Looks like NCHC didn't want to accept them with their own TV deal. Good for them. Bad on HE's part.

After all the eye-rolling, I give the NCHC a point for having enough sack to shoot down their demands.  

And I'm no longer referring to our offshoot as "Hockey Least." It's now "Conference Notre Dame" for me.

Been nice knowing you, RPI. Sad to see such a valued conference member go. I wish it were Quinnipiac. This is going to be harder to accept than it was to accept the UVM move. I hope the RPI-Clarkson games/broadcast parties continue, even if it will be a watered-down NC situation.

I hope Shagwell has RIT on speed-dial.

ECAC: We've still got 3 National banners. *gulp*

[Jim Hyla]

CHN on ND moving to HE. Looks like NCHC didn't want to accept them with their own TV deal. Good for them. Bad on HE's part.

After all the eye-rolling, I give the NCHC a point for having enough sack to shoot down their demands.  

And I'm no longer referring to our offshoot as "Hockey Least." It's now "Conference Notre Dame" for me.

Been nice knowing you, RPI. Sad to see such a valued conference member go. I wish it were Quinnipiac. This is going to be harder to accept than it was to accept the UVM move. I hope the RPI-Clarkson games/broadcast parties continue, even if it will be a watered-down NC situation.

I hope Shagwell has RIT on speed-dial.

ECAC: We've still got 3 National banners. *gulp*

I actually "like" Adam's second article better. It seems to be a lot more reasonable than all the other "Who else is there?" talk. Maybe everyone is putting too much into HE saying they'd rather be an even number. We might get some idea from the tone of Coach Appert's talk on "SlapSchott's". Info in the CU TV thread.

[Trotsky]

I actually "like" Adam's second article better.

This.
Though his assertion that Holy Cross fits the HE profile better than Quinnipiac is arguable.  HE has dueling profiles: middle-of-the-road New England schools and academically serious Catholic schools.  QU and HC represent each, respectively.  Who's a better fit depends on which value they want to stress.

RPI doesn't fit either profile, but they're a lot better at hockey than either.

[Jim Hyla]

Boston Globe on the move, with this quote:

The Hockey East commitment to playing a smaller conference schedule

 For CU, that maybe the most significant piece. Now if we can only get the Ivys to allow more games.

[marty]

CHN on ND moving to HE. Looks like NCHC didn't want to accept them with their own TV deal. Good for them. Bad on HE's part.

After all the eye-rolling, I give the NCHC a point for having enough sack to shoot down their demands.  

And I'm no longer referring to our offshoot as "Hockey Least." It's now "Conference Notre Dame" for me.

Been nice knowing you, RPI. Sad to see such a valued conference member go. I wish it were Quinnipiac. This is going to be harder to accept than it was to accept the UVM move. I hope the RPI-Clarkson games/broadcast parties continue, even if it will be a watered-down NC situation.

I hope Shagwell has RIT on speed-dial.

ECAC: We've still got 3 National banners. *gulp*

I actually "like" Adam's second article better. It seems to be a lot more reasonable than all the other "Who else is there?" talk. Maybe everyone is putting too much into HE saying they'd rather be an even number. We might get some idea from the tone of Coach Appert's talk on "SlapSchott's". Info in the CU TV thread.

If listening on a phone one must use iheartradio app to listen.  WOFX Fox Sports 980 is a Clear Channel station.

[ithacat]

And now, Adam's take on ND and HE.

Sad to read Syracuse's position. I'd love for them to join the party.

Paul Kelly was interviewed during tonight's North Dakota - BC game and said he expected Hockey East to add one more (nothing new there), in addition to Notre Dame. He said he thought the ECAC and Atlantic Hockey would remain relatively unchanged (nothing shocking there). He teased that he believes a couple of new programs will begin in the next few years, one of which will be Navy.

USCHO had articles in late September about two candidates.
Buffalo: http://www.uscho.com/2011/09/26/buffalo-bringing-back-hockey-adding-to-ccha/
Moorhead State: http://www.uscho.com/2011/09/28/minnesota-state-moorhead-to-spend-1-million-a-year-if-d-i-happens/

[TimV]

But opinions are mixed within Hockey East — i.e. the athletic directors who make the decisions — about whether they want RPI. The school is Division III in all other sports,

I don't understand why this matters.  Does anyone else?

doesn't fit as well geographically (the Notre Dame move notwithstanding),

Notwithstanding???  What???  Is South Bend That much better than Troy?  Well, maybe it is,  but at least Troy is just a bus trip.::wtf::